![\"Mike](\"http:\/\/salesjumpstart.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Mike-closing2.jpg\")
<\/a>So, I like any professional give the standard SEO guy answer, let me look at it.\u00a0 The first tactic I use to figure out what is going wrong in a Local Business ranking is to see where they are currently listing online and what those listings have in them. Specifically do the sites they are currently listed on have the correct information on the company’s name, address, phone number, and categories.<\/p>\nIn this case the potential client had a real mess going on<\/b>.<\/p>\n
One of his \u201cSEO\u201d companies had built two different web sites with two different URLs, both with different phone numbers (for tracking I assume) and their correct company name and physical address. They had also listed these sites with the wrong information in many of the standard local directories everyone uses, including Google of course.<\/p>\n
They also had a HomeAdvisor listing with a tracking number, and….\u00a0 they even had several directories where someone years ago had listed their home phone number and address before they had a nice big office in a nice big office building.<\/p>\n
All of this created a very confused Google<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Google loves consistent information about your company. They are robots… they have a mission, and the first mission is to collect information on your business name, address, phone and URL. \u00a0If they see different versions, they completely lose their confidence, and push your website rankings way down, so they don’t have to deal with it. I am not joking. These robots are cowards.<\/p>\n
The reality was they\u00a0didn’t\u00a0need SEO, they needed an\u00a0Internet Janitor<\/b> to clean up a horrible listings mess.\u00a0 And this is where so many SEO\u2019s and businesses get it all wrong, from the very beginning. They start with checking back link reports.\u00a0 Backlink reports will not show you the inconsistent listing issue. You must search like a human (hey… that sounds like a song title… \u201cSearch like a human\u201d), anyway. Go to Google and type in the Company name.\u00a0 Now go to every site that shows up for that company and see if it has the right Name, Phone, Address and URL.<\/p>\n
I have seen rankings plummet<\/b> when a business uses DEX advertising with a call tracking number. Dex will publish the company name, address and the tracking number, all over local directors to encourage salespeople to call the client, so DEX can make a dollar of two on the call.<\/p>\n
It all comes down to this.<\/p>\n
A confused search engine is a big problem<\/b>. And when Google see\u2019s different information for the same company, they don’t call you and ask, because they are robots, they just bury your rankings because robots have no feelings.<\/p>\n
In many cases, the fastest way to get your sites rankings up is to fix<\/b> any old, incorrect, or in any way inconsistent listings that exist online today. Most businesses can do this on their own by contacting each site that needs to be corrected.\u00a0 In some cases, it\u2019s really hard, so if you can clean up most of them, you probably have done enough to fix the problem.\u00a0 Or, you can hire an Internet janitorial firm (like us) and we will do it for you.\u00a0 The main thing is Don\u2019t Not sure if this is your issue on rankings?\u00a0 See that click to make an appointment link on the top of the page,\u00a0<\/span>it goes directly to my inbox.\u00a0 Feel free to use it, and I can tell you in 5 minutes if you have issues.<\/p>\n By Mike Bayes<\/p>\n<\/a> continue to pay for SEO until this is completed. You may be surprised to see your site appearing on the first page for your important services after a good clean up.<\/p>\n